Israel regulator prevents TV price hike

By Chris Forrester

November 23, 2015

Israel’s television regulator has stopped pay-TV operators ‘Yes’ and ‘Hot’ from implementing their planned price rises.

Israel’s Council for Cable TV and Satellite Broadcasting chairperson Yifat Ben Hai Segev also said that she would ask the Antitrust Authority director general to examine the timing of the price rises, which were near-simultaneous.

According to Israel’s Globes publication, both Hot and Yes recently announced virtually simultaneous price rises. Yes was the first, announcing that its VoD prices would be increased by NIS 5, followed by Hot, which announced a rise in prices by an average of 5 per cent.

Since the two companies require approval from the Council for Cable TV and Satellite Broadcasting, Segev made it clear that she intends to exercise that authority by ordering them to suspend their announced price increases pending an investigation.

The increases, as percentages, are significant. Yes announced that it would raise the price for its VoD services to NIS 29.90 a month, thereby making its VoD service price equal to that of Hot Telecommunication. Hot Telecommunication notified the regulator that it was raising its prices for the basic package it offers its customers by between 1-14 per cent, and what it describes as its one-time services, which it plans to raise from NIS 29.60 to NIS 39.90, equal to a 35 per cent increase.